known 308 GTB steel production numbers are wrong?

Yes, indeed. They are all info I'm looking for and all dark points: I don't have an answer to any of them. I will post everything here, if I will find something else: I posted immediately after finding that summary, that i think is good as given at the beginning of 1981 during an important journalist (Quattroruote was by far the N.1 magazine at those times) official visit and interview to Enzo Ferrari himself. It's another step forward, but many have to come yet, before learning the truth about those cars.



ciao

 

Alberto,

As a post-scriptum...
I made the totals for the 308 GTS model, this from the table published in Quattroruote:
From 3195 GTS sold as on the table, 2132 went to the USA, that is 66,75%....
For the GTBs, it is 450 to the USA from 1296 sold, that is 34,75%

Rgds

 

Bruno,

a lot of stuff to read. You mentioned somewhere the question of the highest engine no. we are aware of. I'm curious too. What is the highest known drysump engine no.? Alberto, what is yours? IIRC your engine was replaced at the factory during the post production tests?
Anyway, mine is 01719.

Best Regards
Martin

 

01690

As told, 34465 car engine didn't pass the road test and was replaced before delivery. So they installed the 01690 engine on the last but one 34465 and the car was delivered with that. This is an unofficial story Classiche told me, it's true but I have no written evidences: the official data is that 1690 engine is the one installed on the last but one drysump built. That's what my Classiche certificate says. I think that you, very likely, could have the highest engine number.

ciao

 

Thanks Bruno: I had already did those total.

I think that if today there still is the Ferrari factory we have to say thanks to the 308 model that saved the factory in the seventies: in the mid seventies the market went so down that there were rumors that Fiat wanted to close Ferrari to build there tractors!

And this explain why Enzo Ferrari agreeded to have the 308 even in fiberglass (a thing he hated), if that could make it come sooner: the Factory was sinking in 1974

And we have to say thanks to USA market, that was Ferrari first market and by far. An impressive 73.5% of 308 GTS production in 1980 went to the USA!

ciao

 

Who knows. We still haven't located the third to last and the very last car

Best Regards
Martin

 

Yes Martin, that would be interesting to know...
The two crucial years for the GTB model by volume of production seem to have been 1976 with 644 built, and 1977, with 963.
By extrapolating from the "Quattroruote" table, which does not have the 1976 and 1977 sales, unfortunately...
- but give 34,75% of the total produced for the GTBs exported to the US in 78-79-80,
- and assuming "about 2950 cars built",
about 1000 GTBs should have been exported to the US.

That leaves us with 1950 cars, of which all are certainly not dry sumps, because other markets received wet sumps also (I'm curious about Japan: how many cars? were these wet sump?) but unfortunately no info up to this day.

Nevertheless, my guess is that "about 1700" dry sump GTBs produced is close to the truth...

Rgds

 

Absolutely: not only is the 308 a beautiful car, but it is the car that saved Ferrari.

Rgds

 

but who knows if they are still alive and with the OEM engine too: at present you have the top engine number and the third to last drysump car

And I have the last known drysump car...


ciao

 

Not third. Fourth to last. Did I ever forward you that letter from Ferrari with the last five chassis numbers built 'post-production'?

Best
Martin

 

I mean known still alive, but please send me the letter to [email protected]


After 34465 there is just 34501, as 35503 is a wetsump GTS (I'm going by memory, but I have the numbers somewhere): the last carbed car was a GTS

Thank you very much!

ciao

PS

In any case, last, last but one, third to last fourth to last: it doesn't matter, our cars were different and special cars done on request after the injected cars: I'm very proud to have one of them

 

Hi Albert,

I have just sent it to you.
BTW. The message from Ferrari mentions the last five number. At least the fifth to last car (#34377) was obviously located in Argentina. According to Robert's list of chassis numbers. In the gallery there's even a picture.

Best Regards
Martin

 

Alberto and Bruno,

I am really impressed by the time and effort you put into this topic! Each of your calculations has it's strong points, and I absolutely don't dare to judge what's right and what's wrong. To be honest, I doubt that we will ever find out.

At least I can add some information to the dry sump engine number topic (F106A021*XXXXX*). Unfortunately I only have only a small percentage of engine numbers for the chassis numbers in my database. But indeed I don't have any higher number than Martin's *01719*. Even though the engine numbers don't strictly follow with the chassis numbers (sometimes a car with a slightly higher chassis number has a slightly lower engine number than the car in comparison), but in general they decrease with the lower serial numbers.

I do have a Japanese 308 brochure at home, and from memory the pictures show a wet sump engine (but surprisingly the pictured cars were LHD). I will check later.

Please continue with your research work, guys!

Robert

The Ferrari 308 GTB Register

 

Hi Robert,

About time to have you in the discussion!

More seriously, re: the japanese 308: I wouldn't be suprised at all that they were Left Hand Drive: it is customary in Japan to order european "exotics" in LHD, as it is more respectful of the origins of the car.

I can vouch for certain that the Japanese 328s were indeed all LHD.
There was a specific variant of the 328 produced for Japan (it has "J", then later "JAP" letters in the VIN), which was LHD only.
To which you have to had quite a number of the Middle-East variant of the 328, that are also LHD, that were re-imported later in Japan.
Plus some other "standard european" models (continetal Europe) also re-imported in Japan but all LHD!

Rgds

 

Thank you very much, Martin!

Great age, when Ferrari Factory answered us giving infos for free!

Now you have to pay (an out of brain amount of money) and wait a lot of time for the answer

Thank you again.

Thank you very much, Robert, alias "Herr 308 GTB".

I saw that in your listing there is the 34501: that's a GTS, the last 308 GTB is 34503.

This is what the official Ferrari letter that Martin have says.

The last GTB is 34503, the last but one is 34465. Confirmed by classiche: two carbed cars after mine 34465, one GTS and one GTB (but they didn't tell me which VIN they have).

But I don't know if 34503 is a wetsump or a drysump: will try to ask

ciao

 

Ciao Alberto,

I know Martin's letter from Ferrari, and I agree that you are probably right regarding 34501 being a GTS.

To explain how 34501 came into my list: Keith Bluemel's book "The Original V8" (a kind of 308 bible when I started the register almost 20 years ago) and FORZA magazine no.1 (Spring 1996) both said that 34501 was the last 308 GTB built. This is a good example how facts are created when (incorrect) information from one source is simply copied to the next one. I should at least put a question mark to 34501 in my list.

Apart from Martin's letter and Classiche information: Do we have a confirmed sighting of 34501 as a GTS?

Anyway, the ultimate GTB's like your's and Martin's with their small differences are a pretty rare breed!

Best regards, Robert

 

Hi Robert, I already asked via email everything. I'm a very good customer at Classiche: Maybe I will have an answer, but it will probably take a long time.

Ciao